ACTOR OF THE WEEK!Bernard Bonnin the Alyas Palos. For more info about the late "Palos", click here

Welcome to the Nostalgia Filipina Portal!

Welcome to WikiPilipinasNostalgia Filipina!. This portal aims to provide a comprehensive scope of knowledge on Philippine memorabilia. Wikipilipinas is presenting this content outline as we build the best of what WikiPilipinas can offer for the Filipino people. The major topics divided into several categories provide the organizational framework for this Philippine Nostalgia portal. The outline and its contents will also showcase the collaborative efforts that we can start within WikiPilipinas. This content outline will undergo a thorough review process to ensure that it meets the highest standards that WikiPilipinas upholds.

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Featured Article

Botica Boie -presumably the first and largest drug store in the Philippines during the 19th century and well into the 1960s. Botica Boie was an important institution in the Philippines and has an interesting history, although historians tend to neglect its importance to Philippine culture.

Botica Boie was founded by a Spaniard named Dr. Lorenzo Negrao in 1830 in Manila, Philippines. Actually, the original name of Botica Boie is not known, as the name Botica Boie was coined only in 1867.

In 1850, two German pharmacists Heinrich Schmidt and Friedrich Steck purchased the drug store from Dr. Negrao. In 1857, Steck bought the company share of Schmidt and took over completely the ownership of the drug store.

Featured Artist

The popular comedy duo Pugo at Togo.Photo collection of Dennis Villegas

Pugo and Togo -a popular Filipino comedy tandem in Philippine movies during the 1940s up to 1960s. Mariano Contreras starred as the bald headed Pugo together with Togo. During the Japanese Occupation, the tandem was renamed Tuguing and Puguing. This was made because Togo sounds similar to Tojo who was the Prime Minister of Japan during the early 1940s.

Their brand of humour consisted of short skits, slapstick, and funny dialogues presented in Manila's theathers, most particularly Clover Theater and Avenue Theater.

In one skit, Togo would ask what is the time and Pugo would held up his wrist wearing four or five watches satirizing the Japanese soldier's fondness for watches. In another skit, Pugo would ask Togo who is he waiting and he would just answer "Si Uncle" meaning Uncle Sam which is the United States. In another skit, Pogo would give a monologue caricaturing a Japanese official proclaiming that he "loved the Philippines" but pronounces the word "love" as "rob" making fun of the Japanese people's mispronounciation of the letter "l" and "r."

More often than not, the Japanese Kempetai would haul the two comedians to Fort Santiago for interrogation. After two or three days with bruises and cuts incurred from the Kempetai, the funny thing is that the Japanese always let them go.

A Walk Down Memory Lane

What is good and beautiful can hardly be forgotten. The sweet remembrance of things past that will never come again fills our hearts with a longing to relieve what it was then when we were young, when we were the carefree youth that we used to be, when the times were gay and life simpler.

Featured Photo

As we Filipinos would like to say it, Christmas is just around the corner, and indeed everyone's seems to be busy shopping for Christmas gifts, groceries, and clothings. And most of us, of course, prefer going to Divisoria to make a bargain, all despite the traffic and the rowdy crowd.

Well, look at this photo of Tutuban Divisoria way back in the 1950s. It's a far cry scenery from the now traffic and people congested Divisoria streets. For sure, even during the olden days many people already go there to ride in the Calesa terminal or Tutuban Railway Station (now defunct) that went all the way to Dagupan, Pangasinan.

But looking back through this photo, one cannot help but be reminded that the ambience then was so relaxed and cozy. The place was so rural you would think that the photo was shot in a distant provincial setting.

Well photographs do bring sweet nostalgic remembrance of the easy way of life of the yesteryears.

Featured Album

For our album of the week, we are featuring The Golden Voice of Nora Aunor. This album has been much loved by many Filipinos, especially the Noranians, making it one of the top selling albums of 1969. In this album, Nora lovingly sings in wonderful rendition some of the best loved songs of the 1960s.
The songs include Sweetheart,sweetheart, My Song, I’ll Wait for Someone, Mother Song, Heavenly Father, Oh Promise me, Love me with all your heart, Little Bird, Crazy Feeling, Lucky Girl, All I Own, My Little Boy, The End of Your Love